


You Make My Heart Sing

by Silver_Sterling



Category: Wayfarers Series - Becky Chambers
Genre: Cultural Differences, F/F, Fluff, Intimacy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 19:52:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13982154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silver_Sterling/pseuds/Silver_Sterling
Summary: Sissix and Rosemary just being together with some domestic intimacy. They talk about home and how Rosemary's changed since she left hers.





	You Make My Heart Sing

**Author's Note:**

> I really recommend the first book of the Wayfarer's series. A canon f/f couple from a lesbian (I think) author! I like the second book too and want to include characters from it if I write another wayfarer fic but the first one just feels so homely and I love all the characters and it's just real family stuff which is what I love. 
> 
> I took some liberties with making up some Aandrisk culture and you don't really need to know any information about the world/series to understand this if anyone's reading without having read the book first.

The tips of Sissix’s claws drew lazy, looping patterns against Rosemary’s skin. Making the woman in her arms shiver with delight was an art Sissix never tired of. She could copy the swirling strokes she had decorated herself with onto the soft plains of Rosemary’s skin for hours.

Occasionally she would press a little deeper, until Rosemary arched her back and moaned, her body pushed as close as she could manage to Sissix’s, moulding to her shape. These moments and the faded traces of pattern they left behind were Sissix’s favourite. Intimacy in a way that was unique to her and Rosemary, one of the many surprises Rosemary had brought to the world of relationships that Sissix had previously thought she knew inside-out. The intricacy of human behaviour never failed to amuse her.

Tiny hairs shivered at the base of Rosemary’s neck, standing up on end as she sighed. A soft hand moved to grasp Sissix’s, the thumb stroking over her knuckles. Their chests rose and fell.

Sissix pushed her face into Rosemary’s hair, waiting as her girlfriend held still, preparing to speak. After a moment of silence there was a rasping intake of breath which broke into coughing.

“Are you okay?” Sissix said, sitting up and tucking herself around Rosemary to talk face to face.

Rosemary nodded, her face turned slightly into the pillow.

“Just forgot to breathe for a moment. I’m fine.”

Sissix laughed.

“That sound reminds me of when hatchlings first learn to sing. They never get it right and always trip over their tongues. It’s hilarious.”

Rosemary perked up with interest.

“I don’t know much about Aandrisk song. Would you teach me?”

“There’s not much to tell, really. Reskitkish doesn’t allow for much melody so it’s mostly rhythmic. We use it as something to build teamwork.”

Rosemary ran a hand through her hair, nose crinkling.

“I can’t imagine something without melody being beautiful. I’m sure it could happen but I just can’t even start to think how it might sound.”

“Beauty not so much but it gives you a feeling of power and unity like nothing else does.”

Rosemary had already reached for her scrib and started tapping out notes to research later.

“Power and unity can be a theme in human music, too. That’s interesting,” she said, concentration still on her typing.

“Not as interesting as why a human cough sounded so similar to butchered Reskitkish,” remarked Sissix, smirking as Rosemary looked up.

“I think that was a coincidence.”

“Oh really? What languages have you been thinking of learning lately?”

“Reskitkish is something I’m looking into,” Rosemary said, carefully avoiding eye contact. “Since it’s the language of one of the three founding species of the GC, I think it would be useful for me to know.”

“I thought that Reskitkish might be one of the only languages you didn’t have to worry about considering we have native and almost fluent speakers on board.”

Rosemary pursed her lips and looked up through her eyelashes. She’d been rumbled.

“Maybe I learnt some because I thought it might be a nice surprise for my Aandrisk girlfriend but I’ve definitely messed that up now.”

Sissix swooped forward to nuzzle against Rosemary’s forehead, her claws combing through her hair in lieu of feather-stroking.

“This is an amazing surprise. Thank you.”

Rosemary’s forehead grew hot under the affection and Sissix only leant further into her, pressing against the warmth.

“I’ll help you practice whenever you want. Oh, and please let me teach you hand speak. It’ll make conversations like this so much easier in the future.”

Rosemary huffed a laugh in agreement.

“Can I try saying what I wanted to say, again?”

“Of course.”

Sissix leant back and took Rosemary’s hands in hers, watching intently as Rosemary exhaled. Her eyes were solely focussed on their intertwined fingers as she stumbled through the rough sentence. At one point she choked, taking a jagged breath and frowning until a squeeze of her hands coaxed her into continuing.

“The time we’ve spent together has been some of the best of my life, too,” Sissix replied in Klip.

Rosemary beamed.

“Do I really sound like a hatchling?”

“Worse, actually, but a thousand times more endearing.”

“That’s not much comfort,” Rosemary said through a laugh. “You should tell me more about Aandrisk music to make up for it.”

Sissix leant back, humming in thought. She slid her arm around Rosemary’s waist and pulled her closer to lie on the bed together.

“Since the main point of singing together is to build teamwork we usually only do it within families. You learn from your hatch family then put it into practice once you find a feather family. It’s not really suitable for a tet. The only time you might sing with strangers is going into battle unless there’s a specific tradition which involves singing with the community.”

Rosemary’s face fell at the mention of feather families.

“Do you miss singing with your feather family?”

“No, not really. When you travel through the sublayer together and get out alive and well I think that makes for more powerful bonding than singing could ever give. We have good teamwork here. It’s not something you need to worry about so much, even though it’s sweet that you do.”

Rosemary smiled.

“You can’t blame me for having one particular subject that I don’t trust you to be completely upfront about.”

“Never said I did,” Sissix replied with a flick of her tongue. “Anyway, I sing with Kizzy all the time. Anything goes with her.”

“Would you sing for me? Something Reskitkish not any of Kizzy’s music.”

“You’re underestimating her taste.”

“I hear her taste every day in the showers,” Rosemary replied flatly.

“Okay, I’ll sing.”

With a rush of air and a wary look at Rosemary, Sissix began to sing. It was quiet at first, rasping and perpetually rhythmic. Soon the pace increased, rushing cascades of air crashing around her tongue. Although Rosemary couldn’t understand a lot of it, a tight, bursting feeling knotted through her chest, only easing when the tempo slowed again.

It ended in slow repeating rhythm. Sissix running through the same ostinato over and over as she leant further into Rosemary’s space with a calm smile. Rosemary didn’t notice that a soft, breathy melody had joined Sissix’s percussion until she felt her throat humming. She cut herself off as soon as she realised, Sissix soon following.

“What was that?” Sissix asked. “I liked it.”

“It’s an old Martian song about new beginnings. I haven’t thought about it for years I don’t know why it just slipped out.”

“Maybe your Reskitkish studies told you that my song was about hatchlings making the transition into personhood? It seems similar.”

“I do like the thought of stories so universal that you can understand without the language.”

Sissix ran her hand along Rosemary’s shoulders, leeching some of her warmth as they sat in affectionate silence.

“I’ve thought about Aandrisk ideas of personhood a lot since you first told me about them.”

“Yeah?”

“Sometimes I think that I wasn’t truly a person until I came here, to the Wayfarer.”

“You were dealing with a lot of things back in your old home. Change after leaving it behind is only natural. It doesn’t mean you weren’t still you if that makes you uncomfortable.”

Rosemary ran her teeth over her bottom lip, frowning.

“It doesn’t bother me. The thought that I wasn’t truly me until I met everyone here is actually comforting. What’s scary is the thought of who I would’ve been if I hadn’t come here. Can I really say that I’m a real, proper person if I don’t know if I’d be the same anywhere else? Surely that means I’m still learning about how to be somebody.”

Sissix stroked a thumb across Rosemary’s cheek, an expression that Rosemary had learnt was nurturing affection (usually partnered with condescension) spreading across her face.

“Growing into yourself because of a certain environment doesn’t mean any of this isn’t authentically you. Becoming a person doesn’t mean you stop learning. It just means you know enough to be an individual. Do you think I would show any interest in you if I thought you weren’t a person yet?”

“So humans don’t get any special treatment?”

“Definitely not,” snorted Sissix. “Corbin should be your proof.”

“You mean Corbin, the man who you saved even though you hate him?”

“Do you want me to leave this bed?”

Leaning forwards, Rosemary kissed Sissix on the mouth.

“I don’t need hand speak to tell you the answer to that, do I?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really know how to characterise either of them tbh :( I might have to reread although I only read the book recently sfdgjfd. I tried to make Sissix factual and a little teasing of the way humans are but I just couldn't remember how either of them talked. 
> 
> I'm still trying to work out how to write stuff like this with a lot of dialogue and giving information/talking about serious stuff in detail. Don't think I've quite cracked it yet. Also wish I could write f/f intimacy less guiltily but that's internalised homophobia for you!
> 
> Would anyone be interested in a fic with Jenks, Sissix and possibly Rosemary getting tattoos from Tak? Also Kizzy will be involved because she is my favourite character I love her.
> 
> Please tell me what you thought and thanks for reading <3
> 
> Tumblr: [@buy-bye-bi](http://buy-bye-bi.tumblr.com/) Writing Tumblr: [@bbb-writes](https://bbb-writes.tumblr.com/)


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